Left-arm spinner Rahil S Shah was dropped from the Tamil Nadu team to take on Madhya Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy Group “C” match to be played at Indore from November 17 to 20. In other changes to the squad that conceded the first innings lead to Odisha in the previous game at Cuttack, the Tamil Nadu selectors replaced reserve wicket-keeper R Rohith and medium-pacer L Vignesh with stumper S Lokeshwar and M Mohammed.

All-rounder J Kousik has also been included in the 16-man squad, a TNCA release said.

Shah picked up only one wicket from 45 overs in the Odisha match that concluded while L Vignesh had been benched in favour of V Lakshman.

It would miss the services of opener Murali Vijay, who has been chosen for the India team for the Test series against Sri Lanka.

Tamil Nadu, which has eight points from four games, needs to win the two remaining ones (against MP and Baroda) to remain in contention for a spot in the knockouts.

The matches against MP and Baroda were actually scheduled in Chennai but were moved following a request by TNCA in view of the monsoon rains in the city for the last few weeks.